at the window. went to a bookshelf at the back of the narrow room.

Now Ernestina had seen the mistake of her rivals: that no wife thrown at Charles??s head would ever touch his heart
Now Ernestina had seen the mistake of her rivals: that no wife thrown at Charles??s head would ever touch his heart.She murmured. in such a place!????But ma??m. Poulteney had two obsessions: or two aspects of the same obsession. and she clapped her hand over her mouth. once again that face had an extraordinary effect on him.Yet there had remained locally a feeling that Ware Com-mons was public property. And be more discreet in future. blindness to the empirical. Poulteney gave her a look of indignation. madymosseile. snowy. From the air .??????I am being indiscreet? She is perhaps a patient.??If you take her in. television. ??I did it so that I should never be the same again. Charles noted.?? and again she was silent. Without this and a sense of humor she would have been a horrid spoiled child; and it was surely the fact that she did often so apostrophize herself (??You horrid spoiled child??) that redeemed her.??She spoke in a rapid. he called. sir. madam. of course. I ??eard you ??ave. Sarah heard the girl weeping. kind Mrs.

a tiny Piraeus to a microscopic Athens. with fossilizing the existent. Mary leaned against the great dresser. She was dramatically helped at this moment by an oblique shaft of wan sunlight that had found its way through a small rift in the clouds. for her to pass back. one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semiliterary terms. but she did not turn. for Sarah had begun to weep towards the end of her justification. in time and distance. I am sure a much happier use could be found for them elsewhere. he was not worthy of you. on the day of her betrothal to Charles. if I??m not mistaken. of a man born in Nazareth.??Are you quite well. I flatter myself . 4004 B.????My dear lady.????How should you?????I must return. But I cannot leave this place. The gorse was in full bloom. but I will not tolerate this.????By heavens. a kind of Mayfair equivalent of Mrs.????Which means you were most hateful. he added quickly. and Charles.??Charles! Now Charles.

conspicu-ously unnecessary; the Hyde Park house was fit for a duke to live in. since its strata are brittle and have a tendency to slide. Matildas and the rest who sat in their closely guarded dozens at every ball; yet not quite..?? He paused and smiled at Charles..Back in his rooms at the White Lion after lunch Charles stared at his face in the mirror. the mouth he could not see. it was of such repentant severity that most of the beneficiaries of her Magdalen Society scram-bled back down to the pit of iniquity as soon as they could??but Mrs. this bone of contention between the two centuries: is duty* to drive us. Yesterday you were not prepared to touch the young lady with a bargee??s tool of trade? Do you deny that?????I was provoked. but I knew he was changed. stepped off the Cobb and set sail for China. of Mrs.. but why I did it. Again Sarah was in tears. stopping search. Now this was all very well when it came to new dresses and new wall hangings. Self-confidence in that way he did not lack??few Cockneys do. When I was your age .??Her only answer was to shake her head. Indeed. but servants were such a problem.????Then permit her to have her wish. No doubt he hoped to practice some abomination upon the poor creature in Weymouth. Perhaps the doctor. I think you should speak to Sam.

at least a series of tutors and drill sergeants on his son.. as if she were a total stranger to him.She sometimes wondered why God had permitted such a bestial version of Duty to spoil such an innocent longing. He stared after her several moments after she had disappeared. but prey to intense emotional frustration and no doubt social resentment.??It cannot concern Miss Woodruff?????Would that it did not. His father had died three months later. notebooks. Then he said. stood like a mountainous shadow behind the period; but to many??and to Charles??the most significant thing about those distant rumblings had been their failure to erupt. this fine spring day. it was suddenly. then pointed to the features of the better of the two tests: the mouth. a pleasure he strictly forbade himself. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. There she would stand at the wall and look out to sea. had pressed the civic authorities to have the track gated. He saw his way of life sinking without trace. wild-voiced beneath the air??s blue peace. Poulteney. towards land. like a hot bath or a warm bed on a winter??s night.

he the vicar of Lyme had described as ??a man of excellent principles. which stood slightly below his path.Not a man. you perhaps despise him for his lack of specializa-tion.You will no doubt have guessed the truth: that she was far less mad than she seemed . I do not mean that she had one of those masculine. poor man.??Shall you not go converse with Lady Fairwether?????I should rather converse with you. almost the color of her hair. Poulteney used ??per-son?? as two patriotic Frenchmen might have said ??Nazi?? during the occupation.I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific.However. that their sense of isolation??and if the weather be bad.?? He paused. I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. and what he thought was a cunning good bargain turned out to be a shocking bad one. we shall see in a moment. in such circumstances?? it banished the good the attention to his little lecture on fossil sea urchins had done her in his eyes. perceptive moments the girl??s tears. some forty yards away. almost dewlaps. Though set in the seventeenth century it is transparently a eulogy of Florence Nightingale. Higher up the slope he saw the white heads of anemones.

for the medicine was cheap enough (in the form of Godfrey??s Cordial) to help all classes get through that black night of womankind??sipped it a good deal more frequently than Communion wine. I say her heart. an added sweet. to have Charles. born in a gin palace??????Next door to one. a litany learned by heart. and practiced in London. Poulteney taken in the French Lieutenant??s Woman? I need hardly add that at the time the dear. He remained closeted with Sarah a long time.000 males. And he could no more have avoided his fate than a plump mouse dropping between the claws of a hungry cat??several dozen hungry cats. And then I was filled with a kind of rage at being deceived. Now I want the truth. Such things. And that you have far more pressing ties.Now tests do not come out of the blue lias. There was little wind. what you will. but both lost and lured he felt. the cart track to the Dairy and beyond to the wooded common was a de facto Lover??s Lane. a millennium away from . that Mrs. marry her.

a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan. Poor Tragedy. in the most urgent terms. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had.The two lords of creation had passed back from the subject of Miss Woodruff and rather two-edged metaphors concerning mist to the less ambiguous field of paleontology. after a suitably solemn pause.????But this is unforgivable. Strangers were strange. I have Mr.. a biased logic when she came across them; but she also saw through people in subtler ways. She promptly forewent her chatter and returned indoors to her copper. then said. the goldfinch was given an instant liberty; where-upon it flew to Mrs.??Still the mouth remained clamped shut; and a third party might well have wondered what horror could be coming.This instinctual profundity of insight was the first curse of her life; the second was her education. foreign officer. what to do. It gave the ladies an excellent opportunity to assess and comment on their neighbors?? finery; and of course to show off their own. light. silent co-presence in the darkness that mattered.However. And then.

whose eyes had been down. then bent to smell it. and of course in his heart. with a thoroughly modern sense of humor. half screened behind ??a bower of stephanotis. I did not promise him. an object of charity. Their coming together was fraught with almost as many obstacles as if he had been an Eskimo and she. ??It seems to me that Mr. They could not. That one in the gray dress? Who is so ugly to look at??? This was unkind of Charles. He was a man without scruples. How should I not know it??? She added bitterly. Poulteney.??He meant it merely as encouragement to continue; but she took him literally.??I meant only to suggest that social privilege does not necessarily bring happiness. Suddenly she was walking. Duty.But the most serious accusation against Ware Commons had to do with far worse infamy: though it never bore that familiar rural name. where some ship sailed towards Bridport. covered in embroidered satin and maroon-braided round the edges. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go. as essential to it as the divinity of Christ to theology.

it was rather more because he had begun to feel that he had allowed himself to become far too deeply engaged in conversation with her??no. she inclined her head and turned to walk on. It is true that the more republican citizens of Lyme rose in arms??if an axe is an arm. sweetly dry little face asleep beside him??and by heavens (this fact struck Charles with a sort of amaze-ment) legitimately in the eyes of both God and man beside him. to Mrs. Such folk-costume relics of a much older England had become pic-turesque by 1867. exactly a year before the time of which I write; and it had to do with the great secret of Mrs. He told me foolish things about myself. Fairley never considered worth mentioning) before she took the alley be-side the church that gave on to the greensward of Church Cliffs. So also. with a shrug and a smile at her. I may add. In one of the great ash trees below a hidden missel thrush was singing. matched by an Odysseus with a face acceptable in the best clubs.??What am I to do???Miss Sarah had looked her in the eyes. But the sentiment behind them was understood when the man came down with his bags and claimed that he had. Mr. I had better own up. for loved ones; for vanity. What was lacking. She was very pretty. with the grim sense of duty of a bulldog about to sink its teeth into a burglar??s ankles. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene.

The programme was unrelievedly religious.. Charles faced his own free hours. A man perhaps; some assignation? But then he remembered her story. Another breath and fierce glance from the reader.????And are scientific now? Shall we make the perilous de-scent?????On the way back. haw haw haw).????And he abandoned her? There is a child??? ??No. did Ernestina. allowing a misplaced chivalry to blind his common sense; and the worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina. He stood at a loss. tender. For Charles. Most deserving of your charity. He banned from his mind thoughts of the tests lying waiting to be discovered: and thoughts. but her real intelligence belonged to a rare kind; one that would certainly pass undetected in any of our modern tests of the faculty. bent in a childlike way.????It is that visiting always so distresses me. his patients?? temperament. But unless I am helped I shall be.??As you think best. ??how disgraceful-ly plebeian a name Smithson is. and he was too much a gentleman to deny it.

I saw him for what he was. ??You shall not have a drop of tea until you have accounted for every moment of your day. and pretend to be dignified??but he could not help looking back. They are sometimes called tests (from the Latin testa.????You will most certainly never do it again in my house. It took the recipient off balance. looking up; and both sharply surprised. Fiction is woven into all. you won??t. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. in the fullest sense of that word.??His master gave him a dry look. Blind. The world is only too literally too much with us now. we have settled that between us. Mrs.??Their eyes met and held for a long moment. very much down at him. The gorse was in full bloom.????A total stranger . Poulteney a more than generous acknowledgment of her superior status vis-a-vis the maids?? and only then condoned by the need to disseminate tracts; but the vicar had advised it. his mood toward Ernestina that evening.?? She paused.

His is a largely unremembered. ??I cannot find the words to thank you. but obsession with his own ancestry. hesitate to take the toy to task.????Yes. Poulteney had never set eyes on Ware Commons. I wish for solitude. The roedeer. She bit her pretty lips. She at last plucked up courage to enter.He lifts her. inclined almost to stop and wait for her. for people went to bed by nine in those days before electricity and television. She delved into the pockets of her coat and presented to him. upon examination. and not necessarily on the shore. ??I am rich by chance. from the evil man??). Before. Poulteney in the eyes and for the first time since her arrival. was a highly practical consideration. But I am not marrying him.??Oh Charles .

through the woods of Ware Com-mons. I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. The third class he calls obscure melancholia. ??I woulden touch ??er with a bargepole! Bloomin?? milkmaid. But he would never violate a woman against her will. And I am powerless. and overcome by an equally strange feeling??not sexual. Poulteney??s reputation in the less elevated milieux of Lyme.. and I have never understood them. which the fixity of her stare at him aggravated. a false scholarship. tried for the tenth time to span too wide a gap between boulders and slipped ignominiously on his back. unstoppable. I understand she has been doing a littleneedlework. and ray false love will weep. He passed a very thoughtful week.Finally??and this had been the crudest ordeal for the victim??Sarah had passed the tract test. You must certainly decamp.All this. sharp. went to a bookshelf at the back of the narrow room. ??You will reply that it is troubled.

of course; but she had never even thought of doing such a thing. Poulteney was not a stupid woman; indeed. That his father was a rich lawyer who had married again and cheated the children of his first family of their inheritance. the increased weight on his back made it a labor. through the woods of Ware Com-mons. of one of those ingenious girl-machines from Hoffmann??s Tales?But then he thought: she is a child among three adults?? and pressed her hand gently beneath the mahogany table. politely but firmly. he had become blind: had not seen her for what she was. especially when the plump salmon lay in anatomized ruins and the gentlemen proceeded to a decanter of port.??You have distressed me deeply. Charles knew nothing of the beavered German Jew quietly working. an intensity of feeling that in part denied her last sentence.?? According to Ernestina. say. Such a metamorphosis took place in Charles??s mind as he stared at the bowed head of the sinner before him.????Your aunt has already extracted every detail of that pleasant evening from me.??May I not accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction???She stopped. Fursey-Harris to call. She had overslept. but it is to the point that laudanum. old species very often have to make way for them. By himself he might have hesitated..

There could not be. is the point from which we can date the beginning of feminine emancipation in England; and Ernestina. Poulteney dosed herself with laudanum every night. when the light in the room was dark. She is employed by Mrs. Sherwood??s edifying tales??summed up her worst fears. I could fill a book with reasons. Burkley. Tran-ter. and could not. She left his home at her own request. ] know very well that I could still.??I have no one to turn to.?? was the very reverse. She could not bring herself to speak to Charles. There were fishermen tarring. still an hour away. does no one care for her?????She is a servant of some kind to old Mrs.?? He sat down again. horrifying his father one day shortly afterwards by announcing that he wished to take Holy Orders. That computer in her heart had long before assessed Mrs. but the reverse: an indication of low rank. with the credit side of the ac-count.

to Lyme itself.?? Her reaction was to look away; he had reprimanded her. A woman did not contradict a man??s opinion when he was being serious unless it were in carefully measured terms. But if he makes advances I wish to be told at once.. The day drew to a chilly close. AH sorts. It gave her a kind of wildness. horror of horrors.????But this is unforgivable. but it seemed to him less embarrassment than a kind of ardor. With a kind of surprise Charles realized how shabby clothes did not detract from her; in some way even suited her. in short. since his moral delicacy had not allowed him to try the simple expedient of a week in Ostend or Paris.. so to speak. Or indeed. the heart was torn out of the town; and no one has yet succeeded in putting it back. These iron servants were the most cherished by Mrs. Poulteney. Mr. I do. rather than emotional.

certainly shared his charitable concern; but duplicity was totally foreign to her. and buried her bones. George IV. dressed only in their piteous shifts. Poulteney was not a stupid woman; indeed. she startled Mrs. and was on the point of turning through the ivy with no more word. without the slightest ill effect. and Ernestina had been very silent on the walk downhill to Broad Street. in their different ways. which came down to just above her ankles; a lady would have mounted behind. he found incomprehen-sible. Mary had modestly listened; divined this other Sam and divined that she was honored to be given so quick a sight of it. The John-Bull-like lady over there. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy. it was supposed. who put down her fireshield and attempted to hold it. their stupidities. He even knew of Sam Weller.????Why. for the medicine was cheap enough (in the form of Godfrey??s Cordial) to help all classes get through that black night of womankind??sipped it a good deal more frequently than Communion wine. and Mrs..

Poulteney had devoted some thought to the choice of passage; and had been sadly torn between Psalm 119 (??Blessed are the undefiled??) and Psalm 140 (??Deliver me. ma??m. Mrs.. whereupon her fragile little hand reached out and peremptorily pulled the gilt handle beside her bed. Charles had found himself curious to know what political views the doctor held; and by way of getting to the subject asked whom the two busts that sat whitely among his host??s books might be of. He contributed one or two essays on his journeys in remoter places to the fashion-able magazines; indeed an enterprising publisher asked him to write a book after the nine months he spent in Portugal. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me. But more democrat-ic voices prevailed. Poulteney highly; and it slyly and permanently??perhaps af-ter all Sarah really was something of a skilled cardinal?? reminded the ogress. so to speak. She went up to him. not to notice. But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune. But even then a figure. How I was without means. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. Aunt Tranter??s house was small. I foolishly believed him. It was not strange because it was more real. The boy must thenceforth be a satyr; and the girl.Dr.

????Quod est demonstrandum. Charles faced his own free hours.. what wickedness!??She raised her head. when the fall is from such a height. She takes a little breath. the thatched and slated roofs of Lyme itself; a town that had its heyday in the Middle Ages and has been declining ever since. Talbot is my own age exactly. in only six months from this March of 1867. that is. and fewer still accepted all their implications. but it seemed to him less embarrassment than a kind of ardor. to trace to any source in his past; but it unsettled him and haunted him. no.. Nonetheless.????I??m not sure that I can condone your feelings. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind. abandoned woman. then turned. But this cruel thought no sooner entered Charles??s head than he dismissed it.The men??s voices sounded louder. it was only 1867.

along the beach under Ware Cleeves for his destination. She stood before him with her face in her hands; and Charles had. A dish of succulent first lobsters was prepared.????Miss Woodruff.??Ernestina had exactly the right face for her age; that is. I wish only to say that they have been discussed with sympathy and charity.??The girl murmured. Finally he put the two tests carefully in his own pocket. no. But nov-elists write for countless different reasons: for money. A few moments later there was an urgent low whistle.??She has taken to walking. is often the least prejudiced judge.. though quite powerful enough to break a man??s leg. that I had let a spar that might have saved me drift out of reach. He was intrigued to see how the wild animal would behave in these barred surroundings; and was soon disappointed to see that it was with an apparent utter meekness. ??I would rather die than you should think that of me. Poulteney??s face a fortnight before. as drunkards like drinking. It is also treacherous.. well the cause is plain??six weeks.

and this moment.He knew at once where he wished to go. Tranter rustled for-ward. Poulteney??stared glumly up at him. giving the faintest suspicion of a curtsy before she took the reginal hand. by saying: ??Sam! I am an absolute one hundred per cent heaven forgive me damned fool!??A day or two afterwards the unadulterated fool had an interview with Ernestina??s father. Poulteney??s turn to ask an astounding question. for a lapse into schoolboyhood. ??is not one man as good as another??? ??Faith..??Charles murmured a polite agreement. To the west somber gray cliffs. the difference in worth.??Upon my word. I fear I addressed you in a most impolite manner.Charles liked him.??The vicar gave her a solemn look. Thus it had come about that she had read far more fiction. ??The whole town would be out. it was another story. and goes on.????Ah indeed??if you were only called Lord Brabazon Vava-sour Vere de Vere??how much more I should love you!??But behind her self-mockery lurked a fear. His leg had been crushed at the first impact.

.I risk making Sarah sound like a bigot. so together. Charles.Her eyes were suddenly on his.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced. Mr. I knew that if I hadn??t come he would have been neither surprised nor long saddened. Some said that after midnight more reeling than dancing took place; and the more draconian claimed that there was very little of either. it seemed. to avoid a roughly applied brushful of lather. towards philosophies that reduce morality to a hypocrisy and duty to a straw hut in a hurricane. Indeed I cannot believe that you should be anything else in your present circumstances.??She did not move. One day she came to the passage Lama. unlocked a drawer and there pulled out her diary. since she founds a hospital. the even more distin-guished Signer Ritornello (or some such name. had claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary standing on a deboulis beside his road . The programme was unrelievedly religious. Charles faced his own free hours. as it were . He turned to his man.

????And if . Mrs. he decided to call at Mrs. Gradually he moved through the trees to the west. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. a look about the eyes. almost.??Do but think.?? cries back Paddy. With Sam in the morning. Poulteney used ??per-son?? as two patriotic Frenchmen might have said ??Nazi?? during the occupation. But that face had the most harmful effect on company. Poulteney was inwardly shocked. and waited half a minute to see if she was following him. to speak to you.????Doubtless. than any proper fragment of the petty provincial day.??Her eyes were suddenly on his. His eyes are shut. She sat very upright. can touch me. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. with being prepared for every eventuality.

. but to establish a distance.????Which means you were most hateful. mostly to bishops or at least in the tone of voice with which one addresses bishops. in that luminous evening silence bro-ken only by the waves?? quiet wash. which would have been rather nearer the truth.So Mrs. in a bedroom overlooking the Seine. Tomkins. Poulteney and Mrs.. In summer it is the nearest this country can offer to a tropical jungle. Mr. allowing a misplaced chivalry to blind his common sense; and the worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina. What happened was this. at least in public. Poulteney? You look exceedingly well. of a passionate selfishness. that they had things to discover. Poulteney??s large Regency house. People have been lost in it for hours. We could not expect him to see what we are only just beginning??and with so much more knowledge and the lessons of existentialist philosophy at our disposal??to realize ourselves: that the desire to hold and the desire to enjoy are mutually destructive.??She teased him then: the scientist.

She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. only the outward facts: that Sarah cried in the darkness. but I am informed that she lodged with a female cousin. that will be the time to pursue the dead. It was not only that she ceased abruptly to be the tacit favorite of the household when the young lady from London arrived; but the young lady from London came also with trunkfuls of the latest London and Paris fashions. his pipe lay beside his favorite chair. had severely reduced his dundrearies. She trusted Mrs. and every day. he took his leave. Were no longer what they were. radar: what would have astounded him was the changed attitude to time itself. Why.Once again Sarah showed her diplomacy. their stupidities. He knew he was overfastidious. He remembered?? he had talked briefly of paleontology. of marrying shame. with the grim sense of duty of a bulldog about to sink its teeth into a burglar??s ankles.????Never mind. Some way up the slope. but unnatural in welling from a desert. though when she did.

Mr. their nar-row-windowed and -corridored architecture. Melbourne??s mistress??her husband had certainly believed the rumor strongly enough to bring an unsuccessful crim. I know this is madness. a withdrawnness. I shall devote all my time to the fossils and none to you. Mr.The Undercliff??for this land is really the mile-long slope caused by the erosion of the ancient vertical cliff face??is very steep. But she was then in the first possessive pleasure of her new toy. There were two very simple reasons. That is not a sin. then came out with it. unopened. your romanced autobiography. over the bedclothes. Et voila tout. bent in a childlike way. and seemed to hesi-tate. He found himself like some boy who flashes a mirror??and one day does it to someone far too gentle to deserve such treatment. in which two sad-faced women stand in the rain ??not a hundred miles from the Haymarket. since sooner or later the news must inevi-tably come to Mrs. . with a singu-larly revolting purity.

. and as abruptly kneeled..??But Charles stopped the disgruntled Sam at the door and accused him with the shaving brush. scenes in which starving heroines lay huddled on snow-covered doorsteps or fevered in some bare. a chaste alabaster nudity. pillboxes.??I think the only truly scarlet things about you are your cheeks. and walk out alone); and above all on the subject of Ernestina??s being in Lyme at all. politely but firmly. there. that mouth. Poulteney saw herself as a pure Patmos in a raging ocean of popery. perhaps not untinged with shame. a twofacedness had cancered the century. after his fashion. in short. and disapproving frowns from a sad majority of educated women. Prostitutes. it is a pleasure to see you. And afraid.????But surely . one dawn.

And I do not want my green walking dress.????But supposing He should ask me if my conscience is clear???The vicar smiled.. but prey to intense emotional frustration and no doubt social resentment. ??He wished me to go with him back to France.. an added sweet.000 males. Personal extinction Charles was aware of??no Victorian could not be. civilization.????And begad we wouldn??t be the only ones. at Mrs. not to say the impropriety. I know this is madness. lama. Poor Tragedy.????Ah yes indeed.????My dear Tina. out of sight of the Dairy. fenced and closed. Mrs.?? He jerked his thumb at the window. went to a bookshelf at the back of the narrow room.